Survival
by othersider
Summary: More Whumptober goodness for the prompts "Asphyxiation", "Stay With Me" and "Adrenaline"
1. Asphyxiation

Veg-notables: BOO! Managed to get a post in.. though I jumped the queue. This one snuck up and hi-jacked my muse on the way home from a turkey coma inducing family meal… I blame the bird .. this is all that roasted fowl's fault….

gumnut-logic ::Pelts with a 'mallow gatling gun for her earlier V beat down…:::

Obligatory whumptober stuff: whumptober2019 la-vie-en-whump

Blanket warning: lack of air…hence the title so please remember to do that breathing thing

Characters: V, Scott and some others

Whumptober - TaG'verse

Enjoy…

oOo

Oh god, he couldn't breathe.

Why couldn't he breathe? Oh god, what had happened to all the air in the room?

Struggling, he sagged back against the cold, stark white cinder block wall and fought to draw breath but there was nothing.

His lungs were full of cement. Heavy, frozen and useless.

Slumping, braced hands on knees and the world greyed out.

Oh god….help me…

Strong, warm hands caught his shoulders.

Held him up.

Guided him to a chair. Eased him down into its safety.

Familiar blue flight suit, silver baldric crouched at his feet. A steady, reassuring hand on his knee.

His lips were moving but no sound registered past the buzzing in his ears.

The light was so bright, the walls too white and cold. Oh god, the blood…

A face looking up at his own, Concerned, cobalt blue eyes imploring him and looked away, talking to someone else.

God, where was the air?

Pressure on his shoulder, hand in his hair urging his head between his knees. Complying as a hand ran circles on his back.

The ringing dulling, receding and a voice speaking into his ear. Words to go with the moving lips starting to make sense to his oxygen deprived neurons.

"Breathe, Virgil. That's it. In - one, two, three. Out - one, two, three."

"Here, Scott. The nurse gave me a bottle of water."

"Thanks, Allie. Go find Gordon and find out what the hell happened."

"Sure thing. Is he…?"

"I got it. Just give us some space…Go track down Gordon."

The flash of scarlet, the sound of retreating feet.

The hand still rubbing circles on his back. A brow dropping to rest against the crown of his head. "I got you V. You're okay, just concentrate on breathing and leave the rest to me.." More rubbing. "It's okay, you got her here…"

Oh god, the blood. It was everywhere.

He stared at his hands, held them aloft. The neoprene, stained dark crimson. The iron tang thick and cloying in his nose. Oh god.. what had he done…

…

oOo


	2. Stay With Me

Veg-notables: Quicky one today… short and not so sweet.. Sorry in advance.

Obligatory whumptober stuff: whumptober2019 la-vie-en-whump

Blanket warning: More ouchies and made up slightly researched medical shit

Characters: like I really need to put anything here..

Whumptober - TaG'verse

17\. "Stay with me" (Sooooo not in order…oops)

Enjoy…

oOo

Six hours, forty-two minutes and fourteen seconds.

That's how long it took before the surgeons were able to stop the bleeding and put her back together again.

3.2 units of blood, eight-six internal micro sutures, intubation and required medical ventilation, IV fluids and alphabet's worth of drugs keeping her alive.

Internal hemorrhaging, a laceration to the liver, a perforated lung, three shattered ribs, a concussion just to name a few of the issues on her chart.

Then there was the scary list of what ifs. Starting at every conceivable type of infection known to man, to traumatic pneumothoraces to organ failure, right on down to the possibility of her never waking up again.

He'd heard it all. Taken it all in and catalogued it amongst the growing list of screw ups that he would never be able to forgive himself for. Through the haze of anger and self loathing, past the bone crushing guilt that this was all his fault was the real fear that he was losing her It was tearing him apart.

She should never have been there. Oh god, why had he let her come along? He was the trained expert, the one with countless hours of real life experience. The knowledge base that he had spent years in school to accumulate along with extensive research and just plan old gut instinct.

The answer was simple. She loved him

He pressed his forehead to the back of her pale, limp hand and begged. "God, please. Stay with me. I can't…"

oOo


	3. Adrenaline

Veg-notables: Wow whumptober has almost come to a close! Where has the time gone?

Haven't visited this one in a while.. Last time I was here I whumped the hell out of Kayo so I figured I would touch base and see where it takes us today.

Typed out between phone calls at work so excuse any typos.

gumnut-logic Another sneak attacked to whoop you with.. Tee he.

Obligatory whumptober stuff: whumptober2019 la-vie-en-whump

Blanket warning: Angst, mental strife..the usual.

Characters: Virgil, Scott, V/K

Whumptober - TaG'verse

13\. Adrenaline

Enjoy…

oOo

Adrenaline spiked through his system and had Virgil bolting up right from the dead of sleep. Panting, clutching at his chest as his pulse thundered in his ears.

Sweet damping his cotton, arming tunic. Cooled and chilled his skin, sending a shiver down his spine and his teeth to chatter as his shocky eyes glanced skittishly around the dimly lit room.

A hand on his shoulder was nearly his undoing but the accompanying voice had his shout stalling out in his throat. He couldn't stop the flinch as he pulled away from the comforting gesture.

"Easy now, it's just me."

He turned dark, haunted eyes up and was meet with the clear, concerned blue of family. A safe harbour provided where he wanted none. The storm of the seas more appealing than the offer of shelter.

One look at that familiar face and he turned away again. He couldn't bare the solicitous gaze. He didn't deserve their attention, their worry.

"You okay?" Came the expectant question, the voice shifting as its owner crouched at his side. A hand raising to ease but stopping short of its target as Virgil stiffened. "V…?"

He rubbed a hand roughly over his face, palm rasping over stubble and haggard features. Knotting in messy, unkempt hair as he surged up to his feet.

The world wobbled, a hand shooting out to steady him to which he brushed off and he stalk across the room. Placing physically distance between them along with emotional. A wall erected by the space of feet and the solitary bed, filled with a slender, supine form.

"Virgil?" The inquiry was tainted by unsolicited worry. Unwarranted in its simplicity of expression. One could say so much with a mere utterance and some inflection.

He held up a hand, forewarning that approach was not an option he would accept right now, possibly forever.

The situation didn't call for his comfort for the matter, just his damnation.

Tired eyes flickered to and away from that cataleptic vessel that was his life on the bed. His entirety.

He'd put her there. With his carelessness and his misplaced self-assurance. Overly cocky.

Stupid. You nearly got her killed. What good are you if you can't even save your own?

Shut eyes, averted as his inner monologue of hate, bashed at him. Tormented him along with the images that had stained his dreams with blood and screams.

You're no man, you selfish prick. You should never have let her come. Your spouse…your wife. You couldn't protect her….

He paced, cage in the confines offered by the private room. Hampered by the equipment and the large berth he gave his brother.

"This wasn't your fault." Scott took a step towards him, posture placating as he tried to draw near.

Virgil shook his head once, twice, a third time. "No.. no, you're wrong. It's all my fault, Scott."

"How? She knew the risks going in?" A step closer, approaching cautious as if he were a scared, injured animal. "I've seen the Gordon's report. Watched the body-cam footage. Listened to the audio recordings. Nothing you or he did would have changed the outcome."

"No..she shouldn't have been there."

"Virgil…"

"I sent her in there, Scott. My wife…alone…I should have done another scan. Assessed the site more thoroughly."

"At what cost, Virgil? There were people trapped in there. Your judgement was sound with the information you had. You made a call. One to save lives, which you did. A man is going home to his wife and child tonight. A woman to her family and countless others. All because you made that call."

"..but what of the cost to us..?" The words were whispered from a down turned face staring at his hands. Seeing the after images of blood. Feeling it still, dried, caked and cracked over the tarnished band of gold that she'd placed on his finger though it had long since been washed where it seeped through the neoprene of his torn gloves. Gloves torn trying to get to her…

"Virgil, she's alive. She will recover." Scott implored, gesturing to the bed.

Denial and guilt warred within him. Fighting for dominance and his head swiveled again back and forth, back and forth. "No, you don't understand.."

"Virgil!" His name was said with insistence. A loud, harsh sound above a whisper and just short of yelling. The act like a slap to return him to reality and the demand that came after was a commanding bark for action, not a request "Look at her."

He looked. Saw the battered and bandaged form in the sea of white sheets. She looked small and lost surrounded by all that starched harshness. Her olive skin, pale and drawn. Shadows hanging doggedly under the closed, long lashed lids but her chest rose steadily, exhaled in time with the blip blip blip of a monitor. There was a rising flush of life sparking high on her cheeks. Her lips sat parted, soft pink and tender.

""You saved her too." A hand once more settled on his quivering shoulder. The distance breached. "She alive because you were there."

He sagged as his brother's words finally sunk in. She was alive, would stay alive because even in his panic, he'd done what needed to be done. Gotten her out, kept her alive, brought her to where she needed to be. Here in this very room with a fleet of doctors just beyond the door with nothing but respect for the organization that had saved so many and never asked for anything in return.

Scott was right, of course. His own doubts hiding the truth for what it was.

A soft moan from the bed brought both of their heads around and Virgil's pulse skipped and tripped and started running. Adrenaline lighting through him again with renewed effort, forcing him to cross the short distance to be at her side.

Slender, strong fingers in his hand, warming and colouring with life, squeezed his own.

He raised her hand and brushed his lips across the band he'd slipped home, removed for surgery all those hours ago. The find gold, smooth and unmarred and perfect were it hugged her flesh.

Her eyes fluttered open, his name whispered on her lips and he smiled.

oOo


End file.
